Washout
by Allan Squidman
Summary: NOT A FANFIC. Please see Timestep and Celestial Inferno Something is wrong with Allan Kidman's powers, and the quest to fix them won't be as simple as just touching a magic stone again.


A single hiccup can cost you a victory.

In a faceoff against Hazard Inc., our heroes were at an advantage. All Henchmen had been dealt with, the biotroops had been exhausted, and even the latest mech was destroyed. Only Leather Jack was left standing, and he had made the decision to retreat about half a minute too late. As the Hazard Inc. escape blimp began to airlift him, he was still far closer to his adversaries than was to his liking.

Allan Kidman aimed his trident and began to focus his power. "Guys! I've got a clear shot at his rope ladder! We can take Hazard Inc. down!"

The team held their breath as one. Allan had certainly landed more difficult shots than this one before. There was no foreseeable way that this could end in any way that didn't involve Leather Jack's capture. But what happened next was precisely that – unforeseeable.

There was a sound like a small explosion and Allan fell over backwards while his weapon flew from his hands. Some sparks flew from the discharge and bombarded Edward, Vicky, Zoë, Nate and Flo. The humans dropped their weapons and struggled as they tried to regain them while Nate and Flo became unable to move for a few seconds. The confused allies saw their enemy smugly wave his hat to them as he disappeared from sight, before frantically firing their respective projectiles in a failed attempt to bring him down at a now far less ideal range.

"What happened?" Edward asked once they'd all calmed down and come to terms with their victory being only over the battle but not the war.

"I don't know…" Allan looked at his hands. They were shaking and bleeding from the blast. Vicky quickly rushed to his side and used her healing power to soothe them.

"It's like my trident… misfired." Allan said after some thought. He walked over to where his weapon was lying. Sparks had been firing erratically from the prongs but they were starting to calm down.

"Do you think it's losing its power?" Zoë asked with concern.

Allan held his weapon again and gently willed energy into it. It softly glowed blue-green as always. "I don't think so," he eventually replied. "The trident still feels the same." He swallowed. "The only thing that feels different is… me."

He walked to a nearby puddle and held out his hand. At Allan's command, a handful of water rose up and gently bobbed up and down. But the next moment Allan winced and the orb's flawless surface wavered as it dropped a short distance. Allan concentrated and psychokinetically caught the water ball again, before throwing it down with a groan.

"I'm losing my powers," he said blankly.

On the way home, everyone was thinking about Allan's plight. His powers were possibly the biggest enigma of the entire team. Edward, Vicky and Zoë's all had at least some extent of a known origin, but Allan's came from the strange stones with no explanation. As they thought over the situation, they came to realise there may be hope for their ally.

Allan was sitting on a chair in the dining room, with Vicky rubbing his shoulders.

"Maybe you could just go back to those stones and… recharge?" she suggested. Everyone looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

"That's what scares me the most," Allan replied.

" **What?** " being somewhat unaccustomed to emotion, the robot Nate Beta-Unit found it most difficult to contain his surprise.

"I've just been thinking about it the past few minutes: Compare the four of us for a moment," Allan said to his fellow humans. "You're a successful experiment in biological warfare," he said to Edward, "and all the research that led to your creation has been destroyed. The chances of Hazard Inc. making another one of you from scratch is slim to none." Allan turned to Zoë; "If the incident that gave you your powers were ever to repeat, anyone caught up in it would be dead. It's a miracle you even survived, let alone gained your power over electricity. And Vicky… Nobody's going to find that cave-tribe that gave you your powers after the scare I gave them, never mind escaping from them if they do. But my powers… those rocks are sitting in the ocean waiting for any Tom Dick or Harry to become every bit as 'special' as I am. I mean, yeah. I can go 'recharge' my powers any time I like, but isn't that a drag? Having to go diving every so often or else I'll just become normal again? In fact what's to stop _all three_ of you from _adding_ the powers I have to your arsenal? All things considered, I'm not exactly what you'd call indispensable to this team."

Allan's loved ones were shocked. Edward began: "Indispensable? You're straight up irreplaceable! We're not just a team, we're a family! As with each one of us, we're infinitely better off with you than without."

"That's just sentiment," Allan moped. "And I get the whole 'strength in numbers' thing but think about this: We could go out right now and round up ten drifters and give _all_ of them my powers. Not so irreplaceable now, am I?"

When Allan realised his loved ones were at a loss for words, his expression softened. "Look. I don't have any intention of leaving the group or anything it's just… I'm feeling a bit like a liability or… well… like the team **Aquaman** at the moment. But you guys are stuck with me, alright? We'll go recharge me first thing in the morning."

Allan was convinced he'd feel better after a good night's sleep, but unfortunately it did not seem as though the night would bring any such luxury. Allan's thoughts wouldn't leave him in peace and seemed to drift to and fro between how his powers suddenly seemed so impermanent, and the way he had cost them a perfect victory that day. Whenever Allan felt like his mind was calming down, he would suddenly relive the feeling of fright and disorientation at the sudden blast right in front of his face, and feel how it seamlessly dissolves into disappointment as the reality sets in that he had briefly forgotten about the battle at hand, and that his distraction had allowed Leather Jack enough time to get away. Allan finally decided that he needed to occupy his mind with something else, and climbed out of bed. Rummaging through the trunk under his bed would sometimes make his mind wander.

The case contained a number of objects that didn't really have a place in the house, but were impossible to throw away. After shifting a few objects around, Allan's mind settled on an old metallic bracelet he'd kept. It wasn't a particularly pretty looking thing, generations old with an interesting backstory… Looking at it put Allan's mind somewhat at ease as it brought back insignificant memories. The bracelet used to belong to his grandparents and was kept in a showcase for as long as he could remember. In their childhood, Allan and Edward would only visit their grandparents once or twice a year, and they would visit nearly every year, but there this thing stood in the same showcase year after year. Around it in the living room ornaments would be rearranged and doilies would be replaced. Appliances would be upgraded and sometimes even the walls would have a new coat of paint, but the bracelet would remain where it was, in exactly the same position, seemingly as permanent as the landscape of his grandparents' hometown. Although Allan never realised it, it felt like this one random item gave the place a sense of stability which captured the very essence of what it meant for him as a child to visit his grandparents: The world outside would change, friends would come and go, fads, songs, TV shows… but when you set foot in the old folks' house, you return to a simpler time. Same old grandma and grandad, as though not a second had ticked by since you last left.

When the time had at last come for his grandparents to move to a new place, Allan's grandfather gave the bracelet to him. Not that anyone in particular wanted it very badly, but this was something of an unspoken family heirloom, and Allan as a child had been the only one who showed any interest in the thing (He'd seen it lying in the showcase even before he was old enough to wonder what it was, and would sometimes ask questions about it). So significant was it when his grandparents moved that it felt like there was a thick line in Allan's memory separating the seemingly eternal past of the era of the bracelet in the showcase from the ever changing world of everything after that. Looking at the bracelet in his hands as he lay back made him remember how far he had come, how many things had changed since he was little and how many things that seemed to a little kid Allan like crises at the time had eventually blown over and now were insignificant, and Allan realised this dilemma would eventually go the same route.

When Allan opened his eyes again he realised it was daylight, and that to his relief sleep had finally come. He was ready to set out to the ocean and reclaim his power. His team had a system that worked, and he needed to be a part of it.

Moments later the team arrived on the beach. The sea was calm, but not in a tranquil way. The water line was close, as though it was high tide, but the waves were smaller than Allan had ever seen them. It felt somehow distressing, as if the sea was in a coma, taking slow and shallow breaths. Nate put a raft together from some driftwood more quickly than any human could, and Flo insisted on joining them, even though the water posed a real risk for her fluid composition. She would not say why, but Nate knew it was a gesture of companionship. Allan had put himself in harm's way to fight a battle that should have been hers, and Flo was returning the favour.

Allan dove into the water when they were out far enough but immediately resurfaced. Breathing in the water proved far more difficult than he had expected, and he decided instead to draw his lungs full of air and only resort to breathing water when it became absolutely necessary. As he descended he quickly became aware that something was out of place. Allan distinctly remembered when he was here before that he could feel the energy coming off the stones from a great distance away. It was like eventually concluding the power was out when something you took from the fridge felt surprisingly warm, and you only then realise the light is off and the motor isn't running, even though you've been subconsciously aware that something was amiss all along.

Allan began to realise that the faint blue light that the stones gave off, which he should by now have been bathed in, was increasing far more gradually as he swam deeper than he recalled it doing before. It was only when he was close enough to touch one that he realised there were fewer stones than he had remembered. Far fewer. On the bright side, the moment he touched the stone he could feel the power returning to him, but even this silver lining belonged to a far darker cloud: his powers, he could feel, were not so much flowing into him as flowing through him and out the other side. He felt more like a leaking bucket than a reservoir that was filling up, and he knew that this newly stocked supply of his superhuman abilities, although boosted, would only be temporary. Allan concluded that his powers were leaving him, not because they needed to be refreshed, but because someone had been stealing these stones from the ocean, and he needed to find out who.

But while mulling over this new conundrum Allan suddenly became aware of a new side to his hydrokinesis that he never noticed before: When someone pushes an object over the table, they can feel the movement that this object makes in their muscles, and even if they are not looking, they have some idea as to when to stop as the object has reached the point they had intended to move it. So, too, Allan could suddenly sense the movement of the water around him using some sort of psychokinetic feedback, and he detected a wave, a certain frequency, calling from below. Allan looked down and saw a massive boulder, not like the magical stones in the area, but a seemingly plain old rock, easily the size of a stadium. The wave was evidently coming from inside this monolith and Allan gave no second thought to following it. When he was level with the gargantuan rock, Allan saw that there was a tunnel leading inside. Sure enough, something inside was the source of the pulse. Allan charged his trident and used the light to guide him inside.

As he swam ever deeper down the tunnel, Allan reasoned that this boulder had probably always been near the stones, and he had simply never noticed it before. When he believed he had reached the very deepest recesses of the rock's insides, he found the source of the signal and was immediately mesmerised. There, suspended in a small chamber, was what looked like a gemstone. It had an oblong hexagonal shape and was nearly as tall as Allan was. The crystal was even clearer than the water around it, and it hung in place, humming the eternal note that had summoned this amphibious explorer to its lair. Allan wondered what this all could mean, what purpose this probably priceless stone might serve, when a random thought suddenly came to him. Allan carefully measured the frequency of the wave with his mind, psychokinetically replicated it, and shot a short burst of the exact same wave back at the crystal. This worked, it seemed, although Allan wasn't yet sure what exactly the word "worked" entailed in this instance. He was soon to find out. The crystal shook from side to side, and suddenly beamed a new wave. This wave was intense, and Allan felt it infiltrate his skull, bombarding his brain. Everything around Allan began to grow fuzzy and the light from his trident began to dim. Allan realised he was losing consciousness and had to get out fast. With the combined force of his paddling limbs and his surging hydrokinesis, Allan darted through the tunnel. His now adrenaline-fuelled brain suddenly noticed that the walls were covered in engravings. But Allan was in too much of a hurry to look at any in detail and they flashed by indistinctly as he continued down the path. Yet one image that recurred began to register clearer and clearer as he neared the mouth of the cave, and by the time his upper body was in the clear Allan realised what it was he had been seeing, stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to stare. But he didn't get any staring done as by that time the assault on his mind overpowered him and his eyes fell shut.

The others were anxiously awaiting Allan's return when Edward suddenly noticed his limp body breaking the surface of the water. Vicky shrieked and dove in without a moment's hesitation. She anxiously pulled her love closer to the raft, all the while hysterically calling his name, desperate for a reaction. The others helped to lift him onto the raft and Flo waved a diagnostic hand over him.

"He's alive," she said to everyone's relief. "His vital signs are normal." Her hand neared his head. "And it seems as though he's dreaming."

"What's he dreaming about?" Edward asked.

Flo pressed a fingertip against Allan's forehead and placed her other hand on Nate's chest, and a voice suddenly came through a speaker below his shoulder.

 _The ancients called our city Atlantis. We were skilled in what we could only describe as magic, allowing us to breathe underwater. Other societies grew to shun us, and we retreated into the oceans._

 _Living beneath the waves our powers grew. The men among us learned how to command the waters and bend them to their will, while the women gained tremendous psychic insights. They discovered how the earth, the sun and the moon give power to the ocean, shaping currents and tides, which we learned to harness ourselves, but we did not take it. We merely took a place within the flow of the energy and channelled the power, and with it we thrived. Later their brilliant minds unlocked the secret of the marinolites: stones that could store and release this power. We learned to fashion weapons and other equipment from the stones, and we were more powerful than ever. But we grew dependent on the sea and it grew dependent on us, and a single city, however great, can only thrive for so long when cut off from the rest of the world. Our doom was inevitable, but if we had simply vanished from the seas the tides would cease and the currents would expire, and soon life as the world knows it would come to an end. We decided that our only choice was to erase all signs of our civilisation, and pour all our power into the marinolites, so that they may sustain the life force of the seas. The power in the ocean will in turn maintain and build on the power in the stones. Lastly, we sent one of our own to the surface. One day, his descendant, one with a love for the ocean, will find the marinolites and they will shine with power once again. We make a gift of our magic to this descendant, but to one alone, along with our finest trident. Perhaps the powers may also be carried to his or her children in some form. Our most powerful man and woman have combined their efforts to store this message in the form of waves within this crystal, the purest marinolite ever discovered. We do not know where the currents will carry our legacy over the generations, but we will ensure that all the stones stay together, and we hope this power, and the message, finds our descendant well._

The next moment Allan sprang awake with a shout, his eyes wide. He had barely had time to realise where he was when Vicky threw her arms around him, the force knocking them both to the floor.

"Guys!" Allan blurted. "You will not believe what I just witnessed!"

"We heard it!" Edward interrupted him. "Stuff about magic, and Atlantis and… something called… marinolites!"

"That's got to be what they called those stones! But there's more going on here!"

"I'll say!" Zoë chimed in. "It looks like that power you got was meant for someone else!"

"I don't think it was!" It was like a dam of information in Allan's head had burst. "While I was down there I saw engravings. Over and over one symbol repeated itself. It was this symbol:"

Allan pulled back his sleeve, revealing a metallic bracelet. It was engraved with a Greek symbol, the letter Psi. Allan had chosen that letter he had learned from the relic as his personal symbol when he gained the power, as it somewhat resembled the shape of a trident, and is often used in scientific fields to represent the potential for water movement.

"That's Grandad's old bracelet… why are you wearing it?" Edward asked.

"I was looking at it last night and I must have accidentally slipped it on as I fell asleep." Allan replied in a that's-not-important tone of voice. "But do you remember the story Grandad told us about it? It belonged to a distant ancestor of ours who was found adrift at sea…!"

"… And had no memory but spoke in a language…" Edward filled in

"… No-one understood!" the brothers chorused.

"Dude!"

" **Dude!"**

"And if I'm right there's one last detail!" Allan ventured. "Check this out…"

Allan closed his eyes, and the next moment his bracelet began to shine with a blue-green light. Sure enough, it was made of marinolite, too.

"What do you think it does?" Edward wondered.

"I don't know. It's probably just a trinket." Allan guessed.

There was silence for a moment before Nate's logic brought them back to the reason they had come in the first place. "Did you get your powers back?"

"Not quite," Allan remembered the first detail that had quickly been overshadowed by everything else that was going on. "But I know why I'm losing them! The marinolites are disappearing! I think someone's been taking them!"

The stakeout was short lived, as the culprit was not one for taking things slowly. Nathan Mechse was the very portrait of efficiency as he was, in broad terms, a machine. But a task as menial as collecting rocks was beneath him, and in no time the ocean was crawling with a new variant of Metalrogue. Regular Metalrogues travelled by air, and collected spare parts that could be moulded into robotic units, but these were submarine variants, and were designed with the sole purpose of gathering marinolites. They were also less manoeuvrable, and the team mowed them down as best they could. But since they didn't come expecting a fight, no-one but Allan had brought their weapons. Edward used liquid nitrogen to freeze sections of the water containing the drones, which he would then blast to pieces with ionised plasma. Vicky could do no more than use her stun-beam to slow them down. Zoë could wipe out scores of the rogues at once thanks to her power over electricity which was not only particularly effective against robotic adversaries, but was further helped by the saline medium they were all surrounded by. Allan refrained from using his trident lest he have another misfire, and instead used hydrokinesis to smash the contraptions into one another. Nate was spoiled for choice when it came to offensive options, and used everything from elbow machine guns and rocket fists to sonic beams and projectile sawblades. Only Flo was powerless to fight as the water would do serious damage to her constitution.

The drones were not built for battle, but the team soon learned that they were not entirely devoid of a defence mechanism. Within moments an omegajet descended on the group and opened fire. Nate Beta-Unit immediately deployed a force field and the team's priority shifted. Matters were not helped by the fact that they were confined to a tiny raft. As Nate strained to protect everyone, Edward, Zoë and Flo let loose and returned fire while Allan whipped up a stream to push their vessel back to land, where they would have more room to fight back. If Vicky could gain the high ground she would have a shot at nailing the jet with her beam which would send it hurtling into the rocky shore. But this was too risky with everyone cooped together. They would need a diversion first.

The next moment Allan's powers went erratic once again and the water underneath the raft shook violently throwing everyone off. Everyone's thoughts turned immediately to Flo, and Allan was the first to react. He pushed down on the water below her with his mind, creating a pocket of air around her. As she fell beneath the surface, Allan followed and strained for all he was worth to keep her from touching any of the water. When Allan felt as though his mind was about to give in, there was suddenly a cool cyan glow on him. Nate, whose metallic body sank instantly to the seafloor, had used his extendable arms to bring one of the remaining Marinolites closer, which strengthened Allan's hydrokinesis. The three of them inched toward the shore, while Zoë converted herself, Vicky and Edward to electric current in the conductive salt water to hide from the jet. It eventually flew off, satisfied that its job was done.

Six exhausted individuals at last made it to the shore. The stone Allan had borrowed power from was now completely faded, as every last stone aside from this one had now been taken.

"So it was The System who stole the marinolites," Vicky said.

"That makes things complicated," Zoë added. "Since Nathan Mechse lives on an airship, there's never any telling where we can find him unless we have a plan."

"I can assist," Flo interjected. "I have planted a fragment of myself within the jet plane that assailed us. We can trace it to wherever it has gone, which I am certain would be its home base."

"We need to make a stop at our own home base ourselves," Edward recommended. "It's not a good idea to take on the System airship unarmed."

"Nate, make sure your cloaking device is functioning at optimal level," Edward advised while buckling his diamond sword to his body. "If we can avoid detection we can do a lot more damage before we get swarmed by drones."

"I'm taking my strongest rope," Vicky said as she removed the grappling hook from one of the lighter ropes and hooked a new one onto her belt. "Durability is everything against The System."

"Flo, do you still have a read on the jet?" Zoë asked as she absorbed her chain, as an electric current, into her forearm. "What's your range?"

"Not too long, I'm afraid," Flo replied. "Only about a tenth of a lightyear."

There was a brief moment of silence as the humans looked at each other, and everyone suddenly noticed Allan was hanging his trident on the wall.

"What are you doing?" Edward asked his brother.

"Quite honestly, I think I should sit this one out," he replied. "Who knows how long I'm still going to have my abilities. I've already ruined two battles. I can't put you all in danger again."

The only thing that made the team feel worse than the thought of taking on a mission without Allan, was the fact that they could not disagree with him. Allan feared for their safety and they feared for his.

"Okay." Edward put on a brave face. "We'll go put the stones back where they belong and get you your powers back. You can stay behind just this once, but don't think you're playing hooky again after this!"

Allan tagged along and asked the team to drop him off at the beach again. He always found it less strenuous to think while watching the waves. He immediately regretted this, however, when he saw that the waves had all but completely ceased. He walked to a nearby rock pool, and could not help but feel sorry for the creatures under the water. They had several millennia's worth of evolution behind them that had adapted them for survival in an ever-changing habitat, receiving food, oxygen, and the correct amount of warmth or cold from the shifting tides. He shuddered to think how migratory patterns and other aspects of life in the ocean would be affected by the dwindling ocean currents, and hated how powerless he was to help the very place he received his special gift from.

Allan saw the marinolite that had earlier enabled him to help save Flo lying just a short ways from where he was standing. It was faded and just looked like a big chunk of bronze.

"Just look at you," he said aloud to the stone. "You used to be special, but now you're nothing more than any of the other rocks around here. Don't get me wrong. As a rock you're pretty neat. Who knows how much you're worth given how rare rocks like you are. But you used to be much cooler. You know you're special, and I know you're special… but you've lost your shine, and you had a big responsibility that you can no longer uphold. Out here, you're just as useless as one of…"

Allan put his hand on a regular rock and was caught somewhat off guard by how smooth and at the same time rough its surface was. He took a closer look and something dawned on him when he realised how much more than just a rock it was. There was algae growing on it, and limpets, barnacles and tiny snails were attached to it too. This rock may not have been "special", but that didn't mean that it was useless. It had critters that needed it and depended on it simply because it was a plain old rock.

Allan's attention turned again to the rock pool. He walked back to the ocean, scooped two handfuls of water and dumped it into the pool. "We can still do **something"** , he said to the marinolite. "But how do I get to my friends? It would take a miracle…"

Allan's friends emerged from a ventilation shaft and snuck down a corridor, occasionally hiding behind the odd power box. A battle against a swarm of killer robots was inevitable, but they chose to postpone it for as long as they could and get as close to the marinolite stash as possible. While Nate guarded them from as many of the security sensors as he could, Flo analysed the airwaves for data and energy signatures. They soon arrived at a doorway and as they peeked through it they saw Nathan Mechse walk up to the unique marinolite that Allan had received the story of Atlantis from. Behind him was a balcony overlooking a colossal chamber that contained all of the other marinolites he had stolen. Nathan placed a cybernetic hand on its surface and sensors emerged from his fingers.

"This is a surprise," his semi-electronic voice rasped. "I wasn't expecting to find such an impressive specimen." He closed his eyes and read the data he was gathering. "Yes… I believe this can make things much easier."

Nate Beta-Unit pointed his arm cannon and silently stalked through the door.

"Is that you, Traitor?" Mechse did not even turn to face his assailant.

"What do you want with the marinolites?!" Nate demanded.

"Is that what the humans call them?" Nathan sneered. "I just want what I've always wanted. The end of mankind."

"And you plan to achieve that by messing up life in the ocean?" Vicky asked as the rest came through the door. "That doesn't sound like a very spectacular annihilation."

"What a boring waste of power that would be," the half-robot replied. "What you don't know is that my System has analysed these stones and found a way to harness their power. I can be a god of the oceans."

"So you want to wipe out humanity by flooding the earth." Zooey acted unimpressed. "Hazard Inc. tried that a while ago. You're not very original."

The human side of Nathan's face smiled. "You humans are pathologically incapable of thinking big, aren't you? Have you forgotten that more than seventy percent of the planet's surface is covered with water? With a contact area as big as that, and with enough power, I can toss this little ball of mud out of its orbit! I can plunge the whole planet into the sun! But doing that wouldn't be nearly as satisfying until I've killed you all myself."

When Nathan Mechse used a first person pronoun like "myself", more often than not he referred also to his airship and everything on it. He ducked behind one of thousands of collapsible shields that would emerge from the walls of the airship whenever he needed them. At a silent command a horde of drones suddenly rushed in from all directions. Another command summoned a crane which descended and lifted the large crystal Nathan had been admiring just before his enemies had arrived. The crystal was moved over the receiving bay containing the rest of the marinolites and, after countless cables and electrodes closed in on it, an ominous hum resonated in the massive room as the crystal began to shine. The other marinolites began to rise into the air and gravitated toward the suspended gemstone which slowly moved toward the space above a massive hollow outfitted with hundreds of electrodes not unlike the ones connected to the crystal. These electrodes were what Mechse would use to energise the marinolites and bend them to his robotic will.

Meanwhile the heroes were outnumbered as usual. Edward hacked through robot after robot with his razor sharp diamond sword. Zoë's electricity easily overloaded the electronic adversaries. Vicky used her grappling hook to seize one of the omegajets and pull it up until it nearly hit the ceiling. She then jumped off, shifted into her other form in mid-air, and hovered with her wings as she used her stun-beam to burn out the engines of every jet she could hit. Nate wiped out scores of the inferior robots with his plethora of offensive weapons, and Flo needed only to land a small sample of her cosmoplasm on an enemy drone so that it could enter the drone's framework and subject it to liquid damage. All the while, Nathan hid from the fray.

Flo suddenly realised that a large omegadroid was lunging at Nate with a massive metal fist. She dove and pushed him out of the way just in time to be pummelled into a nearby wall and thousands of spatters of her cosmoplasm spilled onto nearly everything nearby. Scores of enemy drones caught in the splash stopped moving and dropped lifelessly to the floor. Nate stared in astonishment at the smudge against the wall where Flo stood not five seconds ago and felt emotions building inside him like volcanic rage, but suddenly the smear began to twitch and a much smaller version of Flo emerged from the wall.

"Sorry if I scared you," she said. "Mechanical forces bring no harm to me whatsoever."

Nate looked in awe at the countless inanimate drones littered around them. "Did your ooze destroy all of them? Why didn't it harm me?"

"Oh, I didn't destroy them," Flo clarified. "You know how I gave you that heart a while back? Well, now they all have hearts, too. That gives them a connection with you which means that, since your processors are far superior to all of theirs, you now control them."

Nate sent the now turncoat faction of the enemy army straight to where the marinolites were being handled. About a third of the stones were still in the receiving bay while the rest were either clinging to the magnet crane-type assembly that Nathan had made with the massive crystal, or on their way there. Nate's new minions were unable to assail the mechanism as they were immediately intersected by the remaining drones, but that was exactly what Nate was planning. The onslaught that the heroes were facing was now dramatically thinned out, at least for the moment, and Nate wasted no time opening fire on the shield that his former master was sheltering behind.

Nathan Mechse emerged from his fort and engaged his attacker while Edward, Zoë, Vicky and Flo covered him by keeping the other robots at bay and occasionally lending a hand.

The two powerful machines sped toward each other and collided, creating sparks as a loud clang rang through the chamber. Mechse's first move was to bare wrist-mounted firearms on both hands. One shot hit Nate's foot as he dove out of the way while he unfolded a shield on his forearm. He dashed at his attacker, guarding against the flurry and readied a tungsten carbide blade on his other hand. When Nate was close enough he hacked at Mechse, severing one of his weapons. Mechse grabbed at Beta-Unit's wrist while the hold was reciprocated on the other side. Nathan's remaining gun fired a few bullets at the ceiling. Another barrel appeared from Nathan's forehead which fired a concussive burst at Nate's torso and sent him flying back. At the same time Nathan made a large frame holding high powered electrical capacitors emerge from the floor a short distance behind Nate, but Vicky's stun-beam halted him before he could collide with it. Edward and Zoë sprinted at Nathan in the opening. Zoë did her best to hold him down with electricity while Edward swiped with his diamond sword and removed the remaining firearm. Nathan fought the stream of electricity and swung his arms violently, first at Zoë and then at Edward, knocking them both away and freeing himself.

With both of his wrist guns down, Nathan switched to a laser on his left hand and an electrode on his right. He swept the laser from Nate to Edward to Zoë, who took turns diving for cover. The next moment Flo jumped at him from a few feet away. He calculated her trajectory in an instant and held the electrode at an angle where she was certain to land and be squarely impaled and electrocuted, but Flo's movement pattern suddenly stopped and she dropped down, seemingly defying physics. Flo had anticipated Mechse's reaction and sent a telepathic signal, instructing Vicky to stop her in mid-air just as she reached the peak of her jump. As she hit the floor, Flo turned into a shapeless blob and shot a pseudopod-like tendril across the floor, along which the rest of her cosmoplasm began to follow. She began to engulf Nathan's feet and tried to encroach further up, deactivating anything she could reach. Nathan thought quickly (or what passes for thinking if you're a computer) and rearranged some of his wiring so that the mechanisms in his feet and legs short-circuited, and they began to heat intensely. When Flo retreated he isolated everything from the waist down as it was now inoperable anyway. Nathan powered up the boosters on his back as standing was no longer an option. He left his grounded foes behind and charged at Vicky. Nate followed.

Faced with Nathan's superior speed Vicky had to find a balance between darting around on her thin wings and slowing the cyborg and his attacks down with her beam. Unlike she did with the jets, bringing him to a halt did not burn him out as his boosters were not the same as their engines. She could only hold him off for so long, and as her window all but closed, Nathan stabbed his electrode at her and she just barely stopped him in place with her beam before he could make contact. At that moment Nate had caught up and in the instant Nathan was immobile Nate thrust his lighting rod at the electrode and sapped power from the villain. Nate routed this power to his electromagnetic stabilisers, purposely messed with their calibration electronically and in an instant shut off his boosters while he put his fists together. Nate's thrown-off stabilisers spun him over forward and he used this force to slam Nathan down to the floor where Edward was waiting. Edward stabbed his sword through a limp foot pinning Mechse to the ground, but as he, Zoë and Flo readied three simultaneous deathblows they were suddenly swatted aside by three omegadroids. As the heroes had become more engaged with Mechse they became less aware that Nate's army was being eliminated, and by now only drones loyal to The System were left. The situation in the air did not look much better and dozens of jets were swirling around Vicky and Nate.

The next moment a loud thud was heard from the direction of the marinolite crane. Everyone's attention turned suddenly to three bumps in a straight line on the wall behind it, apparently being dented from the outside. The dents, which were roughly an inch wide and just under a handbreadth apart, deepened and eventually tore, revealing three bronze-coloured prongs stabbing through the wall. Allan Kidman's inherited trident slid through the hole which was immediately enlarged by a familiar-looking marinolite, positioned against the end of the handle like a hammer driving a nail. Finally, Edward's brother was clinging to the back of the marinolite. It took its place with the others against the crane, as did the trident, with Allan still holding on.

"How on earth did you get here?!" Edward exclaimed.

"It's actually an interesting story!" Allan replied. "One moment I'm wishing I could make it to you guys, the next I'm hurtling through the air and hanging by the wrist. I first though it was the last of my powers fuelled by my will and my subconscious, but I soon noticed that stone was floating up, too, and I was later joined by my trident. And also some of the wall hooks I'd hung it on and bits of dry wall. I figured something was gathering all the marinolites together so I held on. Now, I've gotta get my weapon back, so hang tight."

Allan's face contorted and he groaned like someone trying to win at arm wrestling against a gorilla. A glow started from Allan's bracelet and spread to his trident, and from there to the stones. All of the gathered marinolites began to shine, and as more joined they shone, too. There was an explosion like the one from back when they were fighting Hazard Inc., except that it had enough power to scatter the marinolites and destroy the crane. They fell to the floor, most of them landing in the electrode-lined hollow Nathan had intended to move them to.

"I thought you said that thing was a trinket!" Zoë yelled in disbelief. Everyone was getting ready to fight drones again.

"It is!" Allan reasoned. "But even a trinket made of marinolite can be charged with power."

"Well, that was probably the last of your power," Vicky said while healing Allan's wounds from the blast. "What do you do now?"

"I don't need powers to be a hero," Allan smiled.

Allan vaulted on his trident and landed on an omegadroid. He stabbed the prongs into the processing unit housed in its head. Allan jumped off the robot, pulling at the handle of the weapon and used the rotational force generated to fling the droid at a jet, which fortuitously landed on another droid. Next he stuck the trident into another robot, just under the head, and twisted it to wedge the head off. A drone from behind pointed a cannon at Allan, and he leapt out of the way before catching the cannon between two of the prongs and misdirecting all of the droid's fire, most of which hit more drones. More drones gathered around Allan and in a few short moments Allan was lying motionless, having lost count of how many places his body was broken in.

Tears streamed down Vicky's face as she tried to get to her love, but the ever-growing swarm of jets would not let her through. Edward, Nate, Zoë and Flo were trapped, too. The battle looked like a stalemate.

" **Enough!** " Mechse thundered as he sat up and wrenched the sword from his foot. "You people have exhausted my patience! Energise the stones!"

There was a tense buzzing in the air as all of the marinolites that had made it to the hollow lit up and sparks crackled from their surfaces. The blue green light grew brighter and came to look almost white.

"Experience the power of the oceans," Nathan's menacing voice roared, "and die, knowing that everyone you love will suffer the same fate!"

Nothing happened.

" **How is this possible?!** " Nathan was beside himself with rage. "I could not have miscalculated anything…?"

"I don't think that's your problem…" Edward pointed at his brother.

A single hiccup can cost you a victory, and Nathan Mechse's mistake was not killing Allan Kidman before powering up the stones.

Allan's body was still motionless, but it was shining and sparking with the same light as the marinolites, and floating about two feet above the ground. The next moment the stones, both from the hollow and the bay alike, rose up and came together. They began to swirl and started laying waste to the drones and the airship. Nathan himself dodged to the best of his ability but several boulders connected and shattered pieces of his exoskeleton. In a last ditch effort to save his synthetic skin, Mechse noticed a large hole in the wall that the stones had made. He angled the ship sharply and all the grounded intruders slid out, Nate darting after Flo to stop her from falling in the ocean. Next he accelerated the ship upward and Allan and Vicky stayed behind, along with the stones. Nathan thought he was in the clear but a gigantic waterspout came up from the sea and bashed at the side of the airship.

While he struggled to regain control, everyone watched in awe as the shining marinolites gathered in five massive clusters. Two took the shape of feet that stood on the ocean's surface. Two formed a pair of hands and the remaining cluster looked roughly like a head with the pure crystal in the centre. An enormous column of water rose up into the space between them and formed legs, arms, a neck, and a torso with Allan in the chest, still shining with that blue-green light.

The airbase again tried to get away, but the gargantuan stone and water man pounded it down onto the water before gripping it with both hands. Its massive mouth moved, and the deafening, unmistakable sound of Allan's voice came from the marinolite crystal: "If you ever come near my stones again, I will hear their call. They will lend me their power, and I will end you."

The airship wrenched itself free, tearing off a chunk of its bodywork, and sped away until it was no longer in sight. Then the glowing stones faded back to their normal intensity and they fell back into the ocean. Vicky dashed through the shower of brine and scooped Allan out from under the stones that had formed the head, and healed him in mid-air.

Moments later the team was sitting on the beach, watching the waves go in and out as though nothing had happened. Allan sighed. "I don't think I could ever get tired of watching this."

"And you saved it!" Vicky nuzzled the side of her face against Allan's.

"You took on The System even though you had nothing," Zoë admired.

"I didn't have nothing," Allan said kindly. "I had my family."

"And your courage," Flo added.

"You guys are gonna make me blush."

"Why did you not terminate Mechse when you had his airship in your grasp?" Nathan asked after a while."

"I think I know the answer," Edward ventured. "It's because you knew he'd eventually rebuild himself, anyway. And you needed him to hear your threat."

Allan nodded. "It was the best way I could make sure he leaves the ocean alone."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"So," Edward eventually said with a smirk, "are you still feeling dispensable, Aquaman?"

A sudden splash of water hit Edward in the face and soaked him. He handed his spectacles to Zoë who wiped them on her skirt.

"Oh, look!" Allan exclaimed. "My powers are back to normal! I was just checking."

"Nice," said Edward, rolling up his sleeve. "While we're at it, let's check if Vicky still has hers!"

THE END


End file.
